1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to notices and alerts generated by applications. In particular, the embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and systems for generating, sending and responding to non-interrupting notices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The efficiency of today's complex work environments depends upon the multi-functioning capacity of computers. For example, agents and processes that run in the background allow users to multitask. Many secondary tasks can operate independently while the user concentrates on a primary task. However, the ability to multitask does not automatically make users more efficient. For example, while email and phones are useful, they frequently cause interruptions, distract the user and hinder task completion.
Increases in computing power and smarter applications that work in the background have led to an increase in the number of alerts and notifications received by users. Intelligent agents and processes are inherently limited in their abilities and can only work in the background up to a point. At some stage, these backend processes require some level of interaction with the user (i.e., task success, task failure, request for input). However, users frequently interpret an unanticipated demand for attention by a backend process as an unwelcome interruption.
Increased computing power allows individuals to alternate between primary and secondary tasks. While multi-tasking can increase productivity, cognitive limitations often prevent people from fully attending to more than one task simultaneously. It is the unexpected interruptions of the primary task by a secondary task that leads to a decrease in the user's productivity in carrying out both the primary and secondary tasks.
It has been shown that interruptions not only slow down task performance and but can also increase errors during the execution of the primary task. Another negative outcome of an interruption is that the user may not pay adequate attention to the content of the interruption. This may happen when the user is interrupted during intense focus on a primary task or when the interruption (i.e., notification) is perceived as a false alarm (e.g., a bogus error message). In such cases, the user may not pay enough attention to the interruption to understand its content. This could have serious consequences if the notification contains important, time-critical information such as, for example, a notice of immediate system shutdown.
The increase in the number of interruptions experienced by users during computer use has sparked extensive research on the detrimental effects of interruptions and ways to mitigate their effects. The majority of these research efforts have focused on determining the factors that affect the impact of an interruption. These studies have determined that the impact of an interruption and the user's ability to recover therefrom can be affected by a variety of factors such as, for example, the specific stage of the task during which the interruption occurred, the relatedness of the secondary (interrupting) task to the primary task, and the type of tasks being performed. Researchers have also examined aspects of interface design that may facilitate a faster recovery from an interruption and a faster resumption of an interrupted primary task.
Although interruptions may decrease the user's productivity, they often serve a vital purpose (e.g., fire alarms, notices of imminent system failure). Nevertheless, some researchers have suggested the development of an interface design for delivering interruptions that would not demand the user's attention. This is believed to be a misplaced effort as it removes a key component of an interruption.
Another proposed solution to this problem is a continually updating task bar placed on the side of the computer screen to notify users. This peripheral notification design is less distracting than an alert based design, in which a graphical notification overlays content at the center of a user's screen and requires a user to take action to remove the overlay. However, the continuous movement in the user's peripheral vision field incident to updates of the task bar may distract the user. There has been a long felt need, therefore, to design an interface that provides notices related to secondary tasks without interrupting the primary task and that allows the user to efficiently and effectively perform both tasks.
Conventional methods and systems for sending and responding to alerts and notifications generated from applications required the user to receive the notification (often disturbing the user from his or her primary task), stop his or her current task and log onto the notification issuing application, respond to the notification and return to his or her primary task. It may be appreciated, therefore, that less disruptive methods and systems for receiving and responding to an ever-increasing number of notifications are needed. Such less disruptive methods and systems would increase the user's productivity by enabling the user to remain on task for a greater period of time, with the minimum of interruption, all the while attending to notices in a timely and ordered manner.